Letters

Swing seats

On 10 December, there were 15 local council byelections across the nation. The average swing away from the Tories in these votes was 6.5% and the swing to Labour 6.9%, in most cases since May 2008. At Weymouth, the swing away from the Tories was 30%. At Nuneaton in what you call "the electorally decisive Midlands" (Old Labour resurgence, December 15), the swing to Labour was 17%. The Tories gained no seats. An independent gained one, the Liberal Democrats three and Labour four, one of these from the Lib Dems and one from the BNP. Such numbers as these would more convincingly illustrate your front-page headline, "Labour back in race", than the theoretical evidence of opinion polls.